The Dream Ends With You
by automatic teller machine
Summary: TWEWYxYNxYN fangames. Contains a lot of spoilers. A girl named Madotsuki wakes up on the streets of Shibuya, and isn't sure why... or how.


Author's Note: actually quite surprised nobody did this before. Anyway, this will contain major spoilers for Yume Nikki and its fangames. Everything belongs to its respective owners and the characters and settings do not belong to me. The image cover is by homedepotp from Tumblr, and wasn't drawn by me either. Enjoy!

* * *

Noises.

Thousands of noises circled around Madotsuki's ears; noises she wasn't familiar with. Noises like chattering, the clacking of a thousand footsteps and music... it had been so long since Madotsuki had heard music.

Her eyes opened.

She was -or had been- knocked unconscious. She was laying flat on the ground in the middle of a street, it seemed. None of it made any sense.

Sitting up, the brown-haired girl attempted to recover her memories. Strangely enough, the more she tried to do that, the less sense it all made. Madotsuki had spent many years of her life locked in her room, with nothing to do except visit her balcony, play on her Famicom or fall asleep. Yes, that was the main thing. Sleep. Madotsuki slept a lot. It was the dreams she had. Oddly, she couldn't remember any of those dreams, but she knew they were awful. Awful enough to drive her over the edge. That was the part that ended the sequence of memories. Madotsuki, no expression on her face, climbing up an iron stepladder that had collected rust for so much time, and jumping off her balcony. The fall was short and sweet, and the distant thump of body hitting floor so satisfying- then there was light. That was when Madotsuki had died, she was sure of it. But it seemed there were people at the scene- maybe not even human people. But they were there. There were chiming sounds, and Madotsuki had only got a glimpse of them before everything went black.

So how had she ended up here?

Madotsuki had definitely died when she hit the floor, for certain- in her last moments of consciousness, she had seen and felt the blood spilling out from beneath her. There was no possible way for her to be alive. Why was she? It was so confusing.

That was when Madotsuki realised there were things in the pockets of the faded pink jumper she was wearing. She rummaged around for a second, pulling everything out.

This definitely complicated things further.

In her hands now were a handful of badge-like objects- pins, with odd designs on them. One of them had a white skull on it, against a black background; Madotsuki couldn't help feeling more drawn to that one than the others. Then there was a piece of paper, with words on it. How did that get there? Madotsuki decided to read it, in case it gave her any answers.

_"Objective: reach 104. Time limit: one hour. Fail, and face erasure."_

Why was there an objective? Madotsuki had no idea. What was 104? There was a large building in the distance labelled 104; that was probably it. And what was "erasure"? Madotsuki didn't know that either.

All of a sudden, there was an incredible pain in Madotsuki's hand, blistering and burning- it felt like it was being cut open, filled with acid. She clenched the hand into a fist, her heart racing as she tried to get rid of the agony, but it didn't work, and in her panic, Madotsuki screamed.

_"Somebody, HELP ME!"_

Nobody on the streets reacted. It was as if Madotsuki wasn't even there. She tried again.

_"Somebody, anybody... HELP!"_

Still no reaction. The panic was monumentous now- Madotsuki's head was throbbing, the non-hurting hand sweating and shaking, her legs quivering. And just when she thought the situation couldn't get any worse, it did.

From somewhere in the shadows, there was a sound of tearing, and almost immediately the air took on an immediate sense of negativity- like a stormcloud. Something sprang up and attacked, and Madotsuki was knocked onto the floor without any forewarning. She tumbled to the kerb in a flurry of colours and noises, the pins and the paper falling from her hand onto the street below and nearly falling into a nearby drain. The pain from her hand had gone, and now it lingered on her back where she had been pushed. Madotsuki got to her feet, and almost screamed again when she saw what she had been attacked by.

A frog-like creature sat on the ground, preparing its next attack. Its eyes were like glassy amber orbs that showed no expression whatsoever; instead of having normal legs, the frog had strange tattoo-like appendages that were blacker than even the deepest darkness. Madotsuki stepped backwards, attempting to make space between her and the frog, her eyes meeting it nervously. She knew for certain she was the only one here who could see the frog, because nobody else was reacting. It seemed like the most likely thing, but there were more important things to focus on. Her hand still clenched, she looked around. There seemed to be more of the same frogs around, except nobody on the streets seemed to notice them, even though they were attacking some other people...

_Wait! _The realisation came to Madotsuki like a smack to the face. _People! _She wasn't alone. As much as the concept of running to join them seemed stupid, Madotsuki didn't have any other option. She took a look at the frog and swiftly turned tail, running as fast as she could towards the place where the people were, struggling against the other monsters. This tired her out to no end, however, as she hadn't done much running in a while, and she didn't notice another person running towards her until they crashed directly into her.

"Another Player!" they yelled. "You must be! Forge a pact with me, now!"

Madotsuki looked up. The person was a girl, who appeared to be much older than she was, and much more rugged. She had a thick head of white hair that seemed to be fairly neglected when it came to brushing, and pale sickly skin. Her glare was very serious and stony, like that of a drill sargeant. She wore a faded purple tank top and a white skirt, although both items of clothing were filthy and hung like a sack on her nearly-skeletal frame. The girl extended a hand to Madotsuki, which she took, and helped her up.

"What's a Player?" Madotsuki asked breathlessly, still tired after the running. "What are all those frog-things?"

"If you have one of those skull pins, you're a Player," the girl said gruffly. "I'm a Player, too- I'll explain in-depth later, I guess. But we don't have much time. Those frogs are called Noise, and they're here to erase us out of existence. If you forge a pact with me now, you can use those other pins you have to wipe them out."

"How?" Madotsuki asked, although judging by the glare the girl gave her, decided it would have been better to save the question for later. "Fine. Pact... accepted."

All of a sudden, Madotsuki and the girl were enveloped in a vivid blue light, and a strange pulsing feeling started up in Madotsuki's veins. It felt like a heartbeat, but occasionally wavered every few beats.

"Just grip the pin you want in your hand, real tight, like this," the girl said. "Then you sort of... guide it with your mind. Do what feels right. My name's Sabitsuki, by the way."

"My name's Madotsuki," she replied. "Where do we start? Do we wait until a Noise attacks us, or..."

"In case you've forgotten, we have a mission to be getting on with," Sabitsuki said sternly, taking Madotsuki by the wrist. "We'll practise Noise battles later. Come on."

* * *

Somewhere else amidst the mess of Noise, a little girl stood.

Her name was Chie. She too had a pin with a skull design etched in it, nestled safely in the pocket of her shorts, and a strange pain in her hand. She too did not know about the origins of the Noise. And she, too, remembered her own death.

It had been a while since Chie had been out of her room. She had been stuck in that room for a long time, spending all of her time lucid dreaming. After one dream, she had caught an orb in her hand, and woke up. Things had been different since then. She had opened the door to her room- for some odd reason, she had always thought it was a cupboard- and left, going into the rest of the apartment. The rooms were a mess, splattered with blood. It looked as if someone had been running and pushed everything out of their way in the process. Nobody was there.

At least, not until she opened the other door.

Chie for the most part was an ordinary little girl, apart from her lucid dreaming. But what she saw when she entered the other room proved her wrong. Most ordinary little girls had never seen a dead body in their lives, not even in a coffin. But laying in front of Chie was a corpse, severely mutilated, and presumably the blood of the previously-living person was the same substance that was splattered all over the walls and floor in great volumes. Chie didn't know how, but she was behind it. There was nobody else to be found in the building- only she could have took this person's life. Yet she hadn't even left her room. This had been too much for her. Chie had knelt down and cried for hours, the relentless tears rolling down her face and splashing on the floor being the only movement in the room. After that, Chie had panicked. She didn't know what to do with this dead person, so in her desperation, she had killed herself.

That was the story, all right.

Yet, it was incomplete. How was she here? She was dead, surely. Was this all a dream? Could you dream when you were dead? More importantly, what was she going to do? If this was anything like one of her lucid dreams, she could just run away and find a doorway or something that led to another place. The situation in front of her was dangerous, she decided.

No sooner than she had started running had Chie suddenly been hit by one of the frogs, and plunged into the hard concrete ground. The pain was almost overpowering; for some odd reason, it didn't just hurt physically, but mentally as well. Chie got up and stared at her attacker, quivering. It had never occurred to her that they had consciences of their own. This definitely wasn't a dream.

"What are you?" Chie asked quietly, her voice trembling. She knew she was looking into the eyes of no animal, but somewhere in her mind she didn't want to pay the thought any heed. "What do you want with me?"

The frog made no response, and just when Chie was about to turn tail and start running, it sprang and attacked, sending Chie to the floor again. This grazed her knees, bringing tears to her eyes- she was just a little girl, after all.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a voice rang out.

"_Hey, kid! Need a hand?"_

Chie was pulled up by her wrist, and her feet were on the ground again, but not for long- soon, she was being practically dragged across the streets at an amazing speed considering she and this mysterious third party were being rapidly flanked by more and more frogs. Chie looked up, and realised she was being dragged along by a much older girl, who was also much taller. The girl had short hair the colour of wheat, and wore a chunky purple jumper with a knitted vest layered over it. She wore a white skirt that swished around madly as she ran, and brown boots that made loud thumping noises at every footfall. Eventually, the girl pulled Chie into the shadows.

"Y'know, you can't just run from them like that," she said pointedly, putting her hands on her hips. "It doesn't do much good. You've gotta forge a pact first, then you can use your pins!"

"Pins?" Chie asked. "You mean... these funny colourful ones in my pocket? And who are you?"

"Oh, yeah!" the girl exclaimed. "Totally forgot! Jeez. My name's Urotsuki. And you are?"

"My name's Chie," she replied quietly, feeling rather intimidated by Urotsuki's loudness. "What's a pact?"

Urotsuki blinked for a few seconds. "Haven't you heard of the Reaper's Game? You've gotta have a partner, or you'll be erased! If we forge a pact, we'll be partners and we can use our pins. You accept?"

"Um... I accept."

There was a flash of bright lights, similar to the ones Madotsuki and Sabitsuki had experienced earlier, and Chie felt the feeling of a pulse in her arm. This pulse was hammering fast, like that of someone who was excited.

"Okay then, Chie," Urotsuki declared, grinning, "let's get over to 104!"

* * *

"So what you're saying is," Madotsuki said to Sabitsuki, as both girls made their way over to the large building on the horizon, "that these pains in our hand are timers."

"Yes," Sabitsuki replied, sounding somewhat annoyed that she had to do all the explaining. "Open up your palm."

Madotsuki did so, and what she saw was indeed a timer, reading "23:55" that slowly ticked down as the seconds passed.

"If that timer runs out..." Sabitsuki paused, and looked at Madotsuki, stone-cold and serious. "...Well, long story short, we're both screwed."

Madotsuki looked down, not knowing what to say, and then noticed something. "You... have two timers," she pointed out quietly. "Why? I only have one."

This seemed to shoot down Sabitsuki's gruffness momentarily. "What?" She cast a panicked look at one of her palms, which displayed a very different time to the one currently ticking down on Madotsuki's hand. The albino's eyes went wide, and her other fist shook with nerves, but this lasted all of five seconds. "Oh, that? That's... that one's nothing. Just ignore it, okay? Focus on the one you have. That's the mission timer. The actual important one."

"But what does your second timer _do?_" Madotsuki persisted.

"What did I just say about ignoring it?" Sabitsuki snapped suddenly, giving Madotsuki a glare.

"I'm sorry," Madotsuki muttered. "Let's go."

In all truth, thanks to her limited experience with other people, Madotsuki didn't know whether or not to trust Sabitsuki. This second timer was only further evidence that following Sabitsuki was risky- but right now, there wasn't much of another option. Madotsuki still had yet to figure out whether this whole "mission" thing was reality, or just some screwed up illusion; a dying dream...

"Oh, yeah," Sabitsuki spoke up, "I forgot. What psychs have you got? You know. Your pins. Not the skull one, the other ones."

Madotsuki reached into her sweatshirt pocket, and brought out her pins. Sabitsuki did the same. All of the pins had pictures on them of various things. In Madotsuki's hand, there were six, with pictures illustrating a bicycle, a knife, a red-skinned demon, a lamp, a flute and a witch. In Sabitsuki's hand, she held six pins with illustrations of a broom, a handgun, a metal pipe, some straggly vines, some slime and a ghost.

"Heh," Sabitsuki smiled, "not bad, considering you're new at this."

"So I use these to fight off those Noise..." Madotsuki mumbled. "Huh."

"Let me ask you something," said Sabitsuki. "When you were... no... before all this, did you get out much?"

"No," Madotsuki replied. "I... stayed in my room. I didn't like the outside."

"Explains a lot," Sabitsuki said. "Did you have a computer, or a TV, or books, or anything?"

"I didn't have a computer," Madotsuki answered, trying to remember her apartment-dwelling days. "I had a TV, but it didn't receive anything, so I just played games on it. I had books, too, but I could never read them."

"Well, basically, those things are how you learn about the Game," Sabitsuki explained. "They explain all the psychs, too. The psychs you have... let's see... you've got Velocity Attack, Shockwave, Lightning Arrester, Holy Light, Street Jam and Dark Barrier. They've all got different effects on different kinds of Noise- we'll try 'em out later, when we've got time, I guess. Let's get going."

Sabitsuki and Madotsuki continued to walk towards 104. A strange thing, Madotsuki noticed, was that even though they seemed to be in a large crossing full-to-bursting with people, nobody acknowledged their existence, despite the fact that Madotsuki had been screaming for help a few minutes ago and Sabitsuki looked as if she'd just crawled out of a gutter. Perhaps they were ghosts? It would make sense, Madotsuki thought, considering she was meant to be dead. She wasn't sure about Sabitsuki, though. How had she died? Illness, perhaps? She did look fairly unwell... but Madotsuki had jumped to her death and landed a mangled corpse, yet right now she was perfectly intact. Then there was the issue of Sabitsuki's second timer. This was all far too complicated for Madotsuki to come to a conclusion without any further explanation from Sabitsuki, and by the looks of it the other girl didn't seem too happy about having to do all the exposition. The brunette decided she'd leave the issue until later, when they reached 104 and the mission was complete.

"Ah." Sabitsuki stopped suddenly. "Yeah. We have a problem."

They were very close to 104 by now- in fact, it was only a street away. However, Sabitsuki had stopped to witness another girl- probably part of a pact, if the small brown-haired girl following her was any indication- barge straight into an invisible wall, right in front of them.

"The hell?!" she exclaimed. "There's this... thingy in my way!"

"Stop being silly, Urotsuki," the little girl told her. "We've only got about twenty minutes left."

"No, seriously!" Urotsuki crossed her arms. "You try it!"

The little girl walked up to where Urotsuki had recklessly charged into, only to smack into something that wasn't there.

"Ouch," she said quietly. "What're we going to do?"

"Maybe we're supposed to use our pins!" Urotsuki declared, as if she had just discovered the secrets to the universe. "Sweet! I've been _dying _to try this one out!" She held up a pin with a chainsaw design on it. "You ready, Chie?"

"I hate to interrupt, but there's no way in hell that's going to work," Sabitsuki cut in, walking towards them. "Pins don't work on walls, you idiot, just Noise.".

Urotsuki gave Sabitsuki an irritated glare. "And who're you? A Reaper, I bet! Clear this wall for us, stat! We've got someplace to be!"

"I'm not a Reaper," Sabitsuki said, sounding exasperated. "I just have common sense, unlike you. If you're okay with hacking and slashing the crap out of that wall to no effect whatsoever, then go ahead, get erased, it's none of my concern. But if you want to actually get this mission done- and Madotsuki, don't you _dare _ask any questions-" she shot Madotsuki a glare, "-come with us. We'll find the Reaper and they'll tell us what we can do to get rid of it."

Urotsuki looked as if she was about to say something harsh in retaliation, but then Chie walked up and tugged the sleeve of her shirt. "She's right, you know."

"Rrgh... fine." Urotsuki crossed her arms, and retained a defiant expression on her face. "Lead the way, smartass."

"Sure. C'mon, Madotsuki." Sabitsuki sounded somewhat amused, yet annoyed at the same time. She lowered her voice to a murmur. "Looks like you're not the most clueless one here."

Sabitsuki looked in all directions, and then pointed. "This way," she ordered.

The group of four walked in that direction, Sabitsuki in front, with Madotsuki following, no clue where she was going; Urotsuki sulked at the back with Chie following along sheepishly.

"Hey," Urotsuki leaned over, and muttered in Madotsuki's ear. "She your partner?"

Madotsuki nodded.

"Yeesh, that's gotta be a pain," Urotsuki replied. "You new at this?"

Madotsuki didn't really know what Urotsuki meant by "this", but nodded again anyway.

"Thought so," Urotsuki muttered. "Bet she bites your head off every time you wanna know something, huh? Chie's new at this too. If you need help with anything and Super Genius up there isn't delivering, just come to me. I know some stuff. Urotsuki's the name, by the way. Did Dandruff Head say your name was Madotsuki?"

"Yes," Madotsuki replied. "Uh, her name's Sabitsuki. I don't think she'd take being called Dandruff Head too well."

Urotsuki chuckled. "Course she wouldn't."

"Um, Urotsuki?" Chie asked, coming up to them. "Who's she talking to?"

"Me, duh," Urotsuki replied. "Oh, you meant Sassytsuki, not Mado.". Urotsuki looked up to see Sabitsuki striking up a conversation with a strange person in a red hood and visor. "I dunno."

"Sassytsuki?" Chie asked. Madotsuki was far too irritated at the shortening of her name to notice Urotsuki's new nickname for her partner.

"Put it this way- it takes major stones to go Einstein on this." Urotsuki gestured to herself. "Yo, Sabi! Who's the hoodie?"

_She's sort of... vain, _Madotsuki thought. _They probably aren't going to get on very well._

"Can't you shut up for one minute?" Sabitsuki responded. "Don't call me Sabi, either. Hey, Madotsuki. Come over here a second."

Madotsuki came over to Sabitsuki and the man in the hood. "What's going to happen?" she asked. "What do I need to do?"

"Again with the questions," Sabitsuki sighed. "Just hold out your wrist."

Madotsuki did that, and the man in red held his fingers against her wrist, as if he was taking her heartbeat. "Pact confirmed," he said. "Wall clear."

"Wall's clear," Sabitsuki called to Urotsuki and Chie, who were lurking in the shadows talking about Reapers. "Get a move on, you two, we're down to ten minutes already."

The four proceeded down the street, and found themselves in front of the large 104 building before they knew it. It loomed before them like a giant column, the bold red numbers winking in the sun. Madotsuki felt a ton of weight fall off her shoulders, and realised the timer on her hand had gone.

"Yeah!" Urotsuki exclaimed. "We did it! We completed the mission!"

"Didn't those two do most of the work?" Chie asked quietly, nodding towards Sabitsuki and Madotsuki.

"Hey, we _helped_," Urotsuki insisted. "I mean, if we hadn't tried breaking the wall, they wouldn't know it was there.". Sabitsuki gave a grunt of annoyance upon hearing this.

"Anyway, I wouldn't celebrate just yet," Sabitsuki said pointedly. "This is just the first day, you know. These missions are just going to get harder and harder."

"Oh, shut up and quit your nagging," Urotsuki retorted. "We're off the clock! Right in front of 104, too. Geez, I hope they have food..."

"Go ahead, then," Sabitsuki shrugged. "No-one's stopping you."

"Damn straight!" Urotsuki exclaimed. "C'mon, Chie!"

The young girl only managed a "see you later" before she was dragged towards 104's automatic doors by an overly excited Urotsuki.

"Sheesh, with the way she's acting, I'm not surprised if they both get erased," Sabitsuki muttered. "What a blowhard. Poor kid deserves a better partner. Can't she restrain herself?"

Madotsuki remained silent. This was getting more and more complicated as it went on. She still had no idea who to trust, either. If Urotsuki had got here the same way she did- by dying- why was she so enthusiastic? Chie was a bit suspicious, too. Weren't most children meant to be noisy and whiny and innocent? Who were the other Players?

The only solution was to watch and wait.


End file.
